DIGITAL.NEOSKOSMOS.COM THE WEEKEND NEOS KOSMOS | SATURDAY 12 DECEMBER 2015 27 SPORT A-League supporter groups lift match boycotts In-principle agreement reached to change banning system after meeting with FFA CEO A hard day’s night for FFA CEO David Gallop, who spent most of Wednesday in vital meetings with stakeholders. FFA chairman Steven Lowy and CEO David Gallop meet with A-League club chairpersons. PHOTO: NEWS CORP. Club chiefs promised greater transparency FFA also pledges to give A-league clubs a greater voice on TV rights negotiation GEORGE STOGIANNOU Last Wednesday was a busy day for the FFA leadership as it met first with A-League club chairpersons, followed by a meeting with A-League fan representatives later that day, to douse spotfires on a number of fronts. GREEK SUPER LEAGUE SUN 13/12/15 SUN 13/12/15 At the first meeting be- tween new FFA chairman Steven Lowy and A-League club chairs, the FFA agreed to several changes aimed at giving the clubs a greater voice in negotiations for TV rights deals, and future marketing strategies. The FFA also pledged greater transparency concerning its running costs. Chief amongst the agreements is the establishment of a new committee enabling clubs a greater voice in TV rights negotiations and future IRAKLIS 00 : 00 PANTHRAKIKOS PLATANIAS 02 : 15 PAS GIANNINA PANTHRAKIKOS 04 : 30 OLYMPIAKOS PIRAEUS IRAKLIS 00 : 00 PANTHRAKIKOS PLATANIAS 02 : 15 PAS GIANNINA PANIONIOS 04 : 30 AEK ATHENS MON 14/12/15 OLYMPIAKOS PIRAEUS 00 : 00 PANAITOLIKOS XANTHI 02 : 15 VERIA ATROMITOS 02 : 15 KALLONI TUE 15/12/15 SUN 20/12/15 MON 21/12/15 PANATHINAIKOS 04 : 30 ASTERAS TRIPOLIS LEVADIAKOS 04 : 30 PAOK ATROMITOS 00 : 00 PANIONIOS VERIA 02 : 15 ASTERAS TRIPOLIS KALLONI 04 : 30 OLYMPIAKOS PIRAEUS PAOK 00 : 00 PLATANIAS PAS GIANNINA 02 : 15 XANTHI PANAITOLIKOS 02 : 15 IRAKLIS PANTHRAKIKOS 04 : 30 PANATHINAIKOS # TEAM 1 OLYMPIAKOS PIRAEUS 2 AEK ATHENS 3 PANATHINAIKOS 4 PAOK 5 PANIONIOS 6 ASTERAS TRIPOLIS 7 PLATANIAS 8 LEVADIAKOS 9 IRAKLIS 10 XANTHI 11 PAS GIANNINA 12 VERIA 13 PANAITOLIKOS 14 ATROMITOS 15 KALLONI 16 PANTHRAKIKOS MP W D L F A D P 13 13 0 0 38 8 +30 39 13 8 2 3 22 11 +11 26 13 8 1 4 18 11 +7 22 13 6 4 3 23 18 +5 22 13 7 1 5 18 13 +5 22 13 6 3 4 16 15 +1 21 13 5 3 5 16 15 +1 18 13 5 3 5 12 15 -3 18 13 4 5 4 13 16 -3 17 13 3 6 4 11 12 -1 15 13 4 2 7 16 23 -7 14 13 3 5 5 8 12 -4 14 13 3 4 6 14 24 -10 13 13 3 1 9 9 16 -7 10 13 1 4 8 11 22 -11 7 13 1 4 8 11 25 -14 7 marketing strategies. The clubs’ representatives on the new committee will be Melbourne City board member Simon Pearce and Sydney FC chairman Scott Barlow. FFA chairman Steven Lowy, FFA CEO David Gallop and other FFA excecutives will also sit on the committee. The FFA hopes the outcome of the meeting will go some way towards quelling recent talk by disgruntled owners of a breakaway A-League. FFA chairman Steven Lowy emerged from the meeting saying “we had a very productive discussion. We have a common objective to take the game where it is today and move it forward”. Lowy said that while the foundations of football in this country had been put in place, the next task was to strengthen those foundations, which he admits are shaky at present. Source: Fox Sports GEORGE STOGIANNOU Active supporter groups from various A-League clubs have announced a temporary suspension of their boycott of A-League matches following a crisis meeting on Wednesday with FFA CEO David Gallop. Gallop emerged from the four-hour meeting with the fan groups to say that the FFA and the supporter group representatives had reached an in-principle agreement to making changes to the fanbanning process. These involved two main proposals. The first was changing the FFA banning notice issued to a fan, to an ‘Intention to Ban’ notice. The second is to allow fans who receive such a notice an opportunity to view the evidence on which it's based. Another change agreed to is for banned fans to then have the opportunity to appeal before an independent tribunal at a later date. “We had a significant meeting with the reps of all 10 clubs' active supporter groups,” said Gallop afterwards, “and I'm pleased to say we reached in-principle agreement on a couple of changes to the banning process and they (fan groups) endorsed those changes. “There was a general good understanding of each other's positions and some robust debate of course. I think it was productive. There were some strong feelings and we've listened to that and made some changes to the process but maintained the integrity of the process as well.” He conceded there was more fine tuning to be done and that they would be in a better position to do this following the thorough review of the system announced last week, to be completed by the time of the February FFA board meeting. After the meeting, active supporter groups issued a joint statement on their club supporter Facebook pages confirming that the FFA had agreed to implement satisfactory systems by no later than 19 February 2016 to coincide with the announcement of the Whole of Football Plan. On this basis, the fan groups have announced a temporary suspension of fan boycotts. Big win for PAOK at Dortmund is to no avail PAOK scored a spectacular away win over Borussia Dortmund on Thursday, but it has come too late to alter its fate A-LEAGUE ROUND 9 THU 03 DEC CENTRAL COAST MARINERS 1-5 MELBOURNE CITY FC FRI 04 DEC SAT 05 DEC SAT 05 DEC SUN 06 DEC SYDNEY FC 1-0 NEWCASTLE JETS WELLINGTON PHOENIX 2-0 MELBOURNE VICTORY WANDERERS 2-1 BRISBANE ROAR ADELAIDE UNITED 1-0 PERTH GLORY ROUND 10 FRI 11 DEC SAT 12 DEC SAT 12 DEC SAT 12 DEC SUN 13 DEC # TEAM ADELAIDE UNITED V SYDNEY FC BRISBANE ROAR V WELLINGTON PHOENIX WANDERERS V MELBOURNE VICTORY PERTH GLORY V CENTRAL COAST MARINERS NEWCASTLE JETS V MELBOURNE CITY FC P W D L F A +/- PTS 1 WESTERN SYDNEY WANDERERS FC 09 6 1 2 14 8 06 19 2 MELBOURNE VICTORY 3 SYDNEY FC 4 BRISBANE ROAR FC 5 MELBOURNE CITY FC 6 WELLINGTON PHOENIX 7 NEWCASTLE JETS 8 ADELAIDE UNITED 08 5 1 2 14 9 05 16 09 4 4 1 9 6 03 16 09 4 3 2 14 9 05 15 09 4 2 3 23 16 07 14 09 4 2 3 14 13 01 14 09 3 3 3 9 9 00 12 09 1 3 5 8 17 -09 06 9 CENTRAL COAST MARINERS 09 1 2 6 10 21 -11 05 10 PERTH GLORY 08 1 1 6 7 14 -07 04 in the Europa League group stage, while Asteras Tripolis bowed out of the competition with a bad loss to Schalke. A beautiful Robert Mak goal in the first half of the game in Germany gifted PAOK its first and only win in the group, with a 1-nil score, which may not have made a difference in the group but may well have been the boost PAOK sought to restart its domestic season after a series of disappointing performances. Boosted by some 5,000 vocal Greeks at the stands, PAOK braved the Dortmund attacks and was lucky enough to see the Germans strike the woodwork on three occasions. It even braved the injury to its goalkeeper, Panayiotis Glykos, who chose to stay on despite being hardly able to move in the last five minutes of play, with all substitutions already made. PAOK has finished its group in third position with seven points from six games, notably unbeaten by the German giants of Dortmund in two games. Asteras had a poor night at home against Schalke and went down 4-nil to its German visitor, conceding two goals in each half to Franco Di Santo, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting (two) and Max Meyer. Worse, the Peloponnesians also saw two of their most influential players, Dorin Goian and Matias Iglesias, taken off injured. The result has left Asteras with four points from six games, in third above APOEL Nicosia. The Europa League draw for the round of 32 to take place on Monday will involve Olympiakos, that was relegated to the second-tier European competition after its loss to Arsenal on Wednesday.